On a mission: Amir Zoufonoun charts global territory for Western Multiplex - Company Business and Marketing

Communications News, Oct, 2000 by Sean Kelly

Western Multiplex soon introduced analog radio products to the market, Zoufonoun says. "We knew very well from thee beginning that we didn't want to stay in that business." Aside from developing analog radios, Zoufonoun had what he labeled a "hush-hush side project"--the development of Lynx.

"It was a secret project because it was so different," he says of spread-spectrum technology, which had never been developed in the industry. After three years, Lynx was finally rolled out. The subsequent "missionary" tour drew some large customers, in spite of the low attendance at the sales meetings. "We had been selling Lynx to a lot of the utilities," he says, "a lot of the power customers and railroads, and some of the largest cellular carriers. All the big guys were very much interested. They were rapidly building out their networks."

Lynx's major attraction was its rapid deployment--a critical factor for carriers trying to sign subscribers as fast as possible. The cost for setting up and running Lynx--which provides wireless connectivity for up to 50 miles--can be recouped "in less than a year," Zoufonoun states. "The large carriers buy hundreds of these and put them in a warehouse," he adds, to be used when needed.

Lynx uses spread spectrum, also called frequency hopping, which takes an input signal, mixes it with FM noise and spreads the signal over a broad frequency range. Receivers in the system recognize the spread signal and transform it back to its initial form.

One prime example of Lynx's acceptance is its recent installation by the Puerto Rican government, to connect all its buildings with the newest DS-3 unlicensed radios, which operates at a 45 Mbps data rate, compared with the 1.5 Mbps for the wireless TI version. Zoufonoun says the installation "would have been unheard of five years ago. They're very innovative. They're using ATM switches and our equipment--connecting their ATM switches back to the fiber network. The network is up and running."

Zoufonoun says mobile operators and cellular PCS companies are also buying Lynx. "We are surprised to find cellular operators who have not used Lynx," he adds.

GLENAYRE YEARS

The success of Lynx led Western Multiplex's founders to sell the company to Glenayre in 1995, in order to retire. Zoufonoun says Glenayre's CEO at the time had envisioned Western Multiplex as being an integral part of the parent company--but he suffered a stroke when the deal was being closed. "There wax no one within Glenayre who took the ball," Zoufonoun recollects. "We became an orphan child, but we were doing so well, Glenayre basically kept it going. They let us do our business."

Zoufonoun says Glenayre stayed "too focused" on its core paging technology. "They didn't have the time to get into a completely new market," he explains. "Paging was in trouble right after 1996. It started sliding. We were sending the payment checks every month to Glenayre--but we didn't fit into the company's core strategy."

In late 1997, Glenayre put Western Multiplex on the selling block. But the "Asian flu" and market crash of 1998 discouraged potential buyers. Glenayre named Zoufonoun president and general manager of Western Multiplex that year. His goal: keep the division growing until a buyer could be found.